twangster

I had a dream two nights ago. In my dream I was on a segment and I sat in a seat in a bar and was told I can't sit there as it's "belongs" to a world cruiser (one who booked the whole show). Then he showed up and went ballistic I was in his seat. Much drama ensued. Don't worry, it wasn't you. 🙂 As I look at booking segments I've wondered how "segmenters" will be viewed by the "lifers". I'm guessing the social dynamic will work somewhat like it does in a prison. Fortunately I don't have any direct experience with that.

Great feedback, thanks for posting.

Like I said... A president's cruise and other non-typical cruises like a transatlantic may deviate but those are relatively few cruises compared to the bulk of cruises such as the Florida 3/4 or 7 night cruises that dominate the industry.

See post #2. Spoiler alert - all Royal ships should have Starlink now.

By October Radiance is supposed to have the WiFi infrastructure replaced or so the Voom team onboard told me. My poor internet experience on Radiance I suspect was mostly due to the poorly configured WiFi onboard and less about the satellite provider. It should be better for you if they have replaced onboard equipment by then. If you carefully manage the 4 free D+ days and if your cellular company includes cellular in Mexico you might find you don't need to buy Voom. Your itinerary looks like this: Sat 07Oct2023 San Diego, California - 4:00 PM Boarding Sun 08Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Mon 09Oct2023 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 11:00 AM - Tendered Tue 10Oct2023 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - 2:00 PM Tendered Wed 11Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Thu 12Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Fri 13Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Sat 14Oct2023 Puntarenas, Costa Rica 11:59 AM 10:00 PM Docked Sun 15Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Mon 16Oct2023 Fuerte Amador, Panama 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked Tue 17Oct2023 Panama Canal, Panama 6:00 AM 6:00 PM Cruising Wed 18Oct2023 Cartagena, Colombia 10:30 AM 6:00 PM Docked Thu 19Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Fri 20Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Sat 21Oct2023 Cozumel, Mexico 8:00 AM 6:00 PM Docked Sun 22Oct2023 Cruising - - Cruising Mon 23Oct2023 Tampa, Florida 6:00 AM - Departure Assuming your phone works in Cabo using cellular (if your cellular provider includes Mexico) you will be connected on days 3 and 4. If you can wait until noon on day 5 to use the first free D+ 24 hour pass you will have internet for that afternoon and the morning of day 6 until noon. Then use the 2nd free D+ 24 hour pass at noon on day 7 which will keep you connected until the ship arrives in Puntarenas at noon on day 8. Use your next D+ 24 hour plan on day 10 at noon or once back on the ship after he day in Fuerte Amador which will keep connected for half the day or more while going through the Panama Canal. Use your last free D+ 24 hour pass on day 13 at noon so you'll be connected until noon on day 14. Day 15 is Mexico so if your cellular provider includes Mexico you can use cellular. All that's left is the final sea day until your are in Tampa. I would talk with your cellular provider to inquire about coverage in Mexico and also to see if they offer international day passes that could be used on days 8, 10 & 12. Those day passes combined may be a lot less than buying Voom for 16 days. However if the cost of a full voyage Voom plan is acceptable to you I suspect it will work better for you then it did for me.

Odyssey came to visit so crew could get vaccinated. That was before the restart officially started. Mardi Gras and Odyssey arrived from overseas on the same day. June 4, 2021. She didn't enter service with guests until PE.

Abuse is wrong. It always has been and always will be. All that's needed if they are concerned about abuse is to find a way to enforce it. Asking to see a DL at check in. "Let's make sure your address is correct in the system." Of course that slows down the check in process. If the abuse gets bad enough then they may have to deal with. I've heard of people who use a friend to earn an unjustified military discount at Lowes. That too is abuse. Some people can't help but to scam the system.

The OV I was in did not have a beverage cooler. Still has a shower curtain.

Just to keep things in perspective, from MSC Seaside using O3b/SES. From OceanCay, the MSC private island To be fair not all the ship speeds test were this good over the entire length of the cruise. However the same can be said for Starlink.

Yes! Doing 3 and 4 night cruises to CocoCay!

Every cruise that has a top tier event tell us how many are at each level. On a typical cruise I've yet to see Diamond be the largest group of cruisers on board. Pre-gold is always the largest. Folks who have sailed Royal before is always the single largest group on board. For those that have sailed before and have a CAS level on a typical cruise the numbers never have Diamond as the largest tier. When I used to track the numbers announced at top tier events I plugged them into a spreadsheet. Averaged over 30 or 40 cruises the typical distribution I saw was gold at 43%, platinum at 19%, emerald at 9%, diamond at 18%, diamond plus at 10% and pinnacle at 1%. A president's cruise and other non-typical cruises like a transatlantic may deviate but those are relatively few cruises compared to the bulk of cruises such as the Florida 3/4 or 7 night cruises that dominate the industry. The issue of CAS status match is not the problem that some perceive it to be. It certainly isn't a problem for Royal. The loyalty program is doing what it is supposed to do - create repeat bookings. At the end of the day how many people are at X level has zero impact on my cruise.

Kids are not conveyed Pinnacle status, only a spouse. I don't think problem is as extensive as some make it out to be. There is likely a bell curve type distribution of kid status. I suspect for the frequent Royal cruising family many kids have sailed multiple times and if they aren't Diamond on their own merit they are probably not that far away. There will be the families on the far ends of the bell curve that will be exceptions but most fall in the middle. When your spouse doesn't have the same status there would be little motivation to book Royal as the first choice. "Sorry honey, you can't come into the DL" isn't going to work well for newlyweds. At that point they might as well consider all cruise lines to book. The non-Diamond spouse wouldn't care less about silly CAS status. "Let's book NCL, or XYZ cruise line". A loyalty program is supposed to motivate repeat business except it doesn't when you don't offer a status match for a newlywed couple. By offering to match newlyweds it gives Royal an advantage and tilts the playing field towards Royal.

Welcome to the bizarre inconsistency of the Royal Suite class. Actually, most ships don't offer the 11am to 11pm beer and wine in the suite lounge that Oasis class ships do. Only Oasis class ships offer that. So technically it isn't "most" ships.

I can see it both ways. My adults "kids" never received CAS status from me because I switched to Royal later in life, after a divorce. Right after the divorce I didn't have money to cruise and I didn't, for a while. By the time I could my kids missed the match. Fast forward and now my adult kids are booking and paying their own way. Absent of meaningful CAS status and being early in their careers they can't afford Royal, they shop low prices. So they book elsewhere. Royal loses the revenue. If they were Diamond that would make all the difference with their limited budgets. Four free drinks would be a game changer. They would be more likely to book Royal. At their age they are not lounge dwellers so their presence, if they were D would have zero impact on other CAS members. As an investor I have to weigh the cost of four drinks versus lost revenue and seeing the competition get the business. It's their money my kids have earned themselves by working, I'm not going to tell them how to vacation. Bottom line, Royal loses. But they have no issue filling ships so, Royal wins? They didn't have to give 4 drinks away for free. 🤷‍♂️ It's a loyalty program. The match generates loyalty. Mission accomplished.

No more or less than any other Royal ship. If you have cruised Royal lately on any ship the Quantum entertainment experience will be similar.

1/2 million dollars for some onboard credit, carry-on bag drop off with delivery, welcome lunch with Chops menu, 2 device surf and stream? Looks like one example when it would have been cheaper to buy The Key.

Tough crowd. About 28 years ago.

What the ship say about the audio issue in the theater?

I think you were talking to the wrong Bailey.

Available inventory doesn't indicate the way it used to. It is no longer absolute. "Seven cabins left" used to mean there are seven cabins left. Today that has become... there are seven cabins available at this moment in time. In the past Royal would open a ship and every cabin was available to be booked. They are moving away from that. Now they are purposely holding back inventory, releasing it in blocks at various dates over months. From a call center agent perspective there may be just seven cabins in a specific category that can be booked at this moment in time. That's is all that agent can see. That agent doesn't see what has been booked and what hasn't been opened for booking yet, they just see what is available or unavailable. Unavailable does not mean it's been booked. The agent doesn't know. From the May 4, 2023 RCCL Investors call Q&A: Jason Liberty -- Chief Executive Officer (responding to an analyst's question) Yes. Well, we actually, through the COVID period, had kind of shifted how we go to market with our inventory. We used to kind of put everything out there and all the suites would be sold basically right off the bat. And then you would kind of work your way down to the inside cabins. Well, now we hold back inventory and we release it, based off, of the much more sophisticated revenue management models that we have today. And so, all of that takes into account, you know, the demand environment we are seeing and that's why I think sometimes when we get into conversations around what percent booked are you? How does it relate to this period versus that period? What we are really focused on is optimizing yield. And so, there might be periods where, you know, quarter over quarter or year over year, we want to be in a stronger book position or less -- or lesser than what we were booked in a previous period because what we're focused on is maximizing yield, which, sometimes, you know, comes with us having more inventory to sell.

Maybe they are redeploying her. 🤔 If you call it that when she hasn't been deployed yet. Maybe it was a diversion, preliminary, placeholder or outdated information rendered obsolete. Maybe she will assume the Allure cruises from Miami like Wonder and Harmony. Maybe... time will tell.

It's on the US site now.

It might be both arms, both legs and a spouse's leg to make the switch. Stay tuned, but the expectation is that Utopia being brand new vs. Allure, being the 2nd in this class and more than 10 years old, will have a large price discrepancy between them.

My bad... that's 2.8 km or 1.7 miles.

Captain Johnny is also known for being a bit of a maverick. Perhaps there is more to it than just the social presence.